The year before last, my bog garden attracted a single, plump female mantis. The next spring had hundreds of mantis babies everywhere. When they first hatched, I would find at least three on every plant for months. Fingers crossed that some hung around long enough to breed, if so they should be showing up soon.

Cleaning out my photos, ran across four more entries for my folder titled "Spiders on Pitcher Plants". Cute little thieves might be stealing prey, but hopefully they are also keeping the grasshoppers away.
#spiders #nature #Gardening

Another show is annoying me with "oh, I don't think I could marry a cop". Television loves to make it look like it's because of their hours and threats to their life. The domestic violence shelter taught me it's because when you run, they will use their badge to find you. They had to have a system in place to help women hide, and it didn't always work. They can never stop running.

My little bog plants have a tendency to attract spiders. They like to feast on the insects the plants attract, even going as far as to steal prey from sundew and pitcher pant traps. There always seems to be at least one spider in my little bog. I've even had spiders crawl inside of pitcher plants to spin their hammock, one spent a week in a tube molting. Sometimes, I catch a spiderling and raise it to adulthood and let it go. Here's some of my fav shots of our little guests.

Oh look, a post about my coloring book.

https://tippitiwichet.com/2023/04/11/coloring-book-update/

There are way too many books on flat earth theory in existence.

Finally managed to carve out time for my coloring book project again. I got the idea 2 yrs ago, it's the reason I gave myself an excuse to start a carnivorous plant collection and to get a microscope. I got the idea while picking up drawing again after over a decade, with eyesight loss and stiffness in my fingers now. I am so slow, but I want this in my hands, I have to make it. I've finally gotten brave enough to put down ink, it's a good thing I've learned to love my lines a little clumsy.

Can anyone spot me $144 so I can get some yellow rubber ducky isopods?
https://www.isopodshop.com/product-page/cubaris-blonde-ducky

Daughter hates mushrooms (the youngest, not the 20 year old, she's sane), so today's homeschooling lesson was about decomposition and nutrient cycles so I could culminate the lesson by pointing out that all the Amazon boxes sent to me are shredded, mixed with old coffee grounds, and stored to feed oyster mushrooms, so mommy and older sis are eating Amazon boxes to reduce waste, which resulted in an umprompted high five from her, so I'm doing this right.